Karel Gut facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Karel Gut |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
"Karel Gut" VIP area in Prague's O2 Arena at the 2015 IIHF World Championship.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 16 September 1927 Prague, Czechoslovakia |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 6 January 2014 (aged 86) Prague, Czech Republic |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Defence | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shot | Left | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Played for | Czechoslovak Extraliga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team |  Czechoslovakia |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Playing career | 1951–1964 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Karel Gut (born September 16, 1927 – died January 6, 2014) was a famous Czech ice hockey player and coach. He also became a leader in sports management. Karel was born in Prague, which was then part of Czechoslovakia. Even though he played soccer when he was young, he became very well known as a talented ice hockey defenceman.
Karel Gut was honored in the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998. He is also in the Czechoslovakian Ice Hockey Hall of Fame. He passed away when he was 86 years old.
Karel Gut's Playing Days
Karel Gut started his ice hockey journey in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He played in the top league, the Czechoslovak Extraliga. He played for teams like Praha ATK and Tatra Smichov. Most of his playing career was with Spartak Praha Sokolova TJ. From 1952 to 1960, he was even the captain of the Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team!
As a player, Karel Gut won three bronze medals at the Ice Hockey World Championships. He won them in 1955, 1957, and 1959. In 1955, he was even named the best defenceman of the tournament! He also played in three Winter Olympics and six World Cup tournaments.
Coaching Success
In 1964, Karel Gut stopped playing ice hockey professionally. He then started a new career as an ice hockey coach.
From 1973 to 1979, Gut coached the Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team. He led them to win gold medals at the Ice Hockey World Championships twice! They won in 1976 in Poland and again in 1977 in Austria.
Karel Gut was always looking for new ways to train his players. In the late 1970s, he saw a Canadian coach using special rings for practice. Gut brought these ideas back to Czechoslovakia. He used them to improve the training for the national team. These new training methods were also used by university ice hockey teams.
Leading the Sport
After Czechoslovakia divided into two countries, Karel Gut became the chairman of the Czech Ice Hockey Association. Under his leadership, the Czech national team achieved amazing success.
They won the gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan. They also won four World Championship gold medals. These victories happened in 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2001. Karel Gut truly helped shape Czech ice hockey for many years.
